In his cooking series, Denver’s Nick Massie prepares meals showing how to apply the CrossFit dietary prescription of meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. In this segment, Massie makes fine dining for the holidays easy as he prepares prime rib and horseradish sauce.

For the prime rib, he uses a 19-lb. rib roast and rinses it before trimming away some of the fat.

“Whenever you’re cooking a protein, it’s always good to have it dry when you season it so that the seasonings will actually stick,” he says. Massie liberally applies Creole seasoning right before roasting.

For air circulation during roasting, Massie elevates the meat using a baking rack set atop ramekins inside the hotel pan. He roasts the meat for 15 minutes at 425 F, then reduces the heat to 325 until the roast is medium-rare with an internal temperature of 115-120 F.

While the roast cooks, Massie demonstrates how to calibrate an instant-read thermometer. Once the roast hits the desired temperature, he lets it rest at least 20 minutes before carving.

To make creamy horseradish sauce, Massie cleans, peels, and dices the horseradish, using gloves to protect against its spiciness. He uses a food processor to puree the horseradish with water, and he times adding the remaining ingredients by how hot he wants the sauce.

“If you like it kind of mild, put your vinegar in there right away. If you don’t—if you like it nice and spicy, nice and hot—you can let it sit at this point for a longer period of time,” he says.

Cooking with Nick Massie used to be awesome and really fun to watch. This new one is not so good. Too staged, too stale and too serious. The music from the old episodes was awesome as well as the "feel"-very casual and fun. Go back to the old way please!

David. Thank you for being honest.
There are many variables that have together for a video to be casual and fun. The truth is that I am not very good on camera; I prefer teaching to an actual audience. What Marston, the previous producer, was able to do to make me not look like such a flake, was nothing short of amazing. Also, the relationship between the producer and I is very important. With Marston, we worked out before shooting, became instant friends, and were able to feed off of each other throughout the day to keep it relaxed and fun. With this shoot, the producer, although very technically adept, didn’t even know what a back squat was, let alone had he ever performed one.
With anything cooking, there is much to explain and it is difficult to know just what information to deliver. Cost, quality of product, variations, food safety, storage and reheating, etc… When the producer is a member of the target audience, it really helps because they are able to ask the questions that another member of the same audience might also ask. Any producer that has to follow Marston’s work has big shoes to fill. Even if it were legal to clone him, we’d have to wait twenty some years for him to mature, and I would be competing in the Master’s Division by then, and probably less interesting and fun…
Is the goal of these videos to be fun and casual, probably not, it is to deliver information that will make a member of the audience feel more confident in the kitchen. However, if the video is so staged, stale and serious that it is painful to watch, then is the goal met? Maybe not. With any change, comes discomfort, for both sides of the coin (myself and the viewer). The beauty of CrossFit’s open forum is that we can have conversations like this one. So, keep leaving comments, I’ll work on my camera skills and we can both continue working on our back squats.
Be patient, I’m new at this. I have a lot of information to share and I’m totally dedicated to making it a success.
Stay tuned and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Cool recipe, I agree with David to a point. The old style of video was cool, seemed to buck the trend of cooking shows. This video seemed almost like all the other cooking shows/videos...kind of lost the "special" vibe that the previous videos had. I still liked it a lot. Just like you said Nick, it's a cooking show made by a CrossFitter vs. a cooking show made by a guy makes cooking shows. But bottom line is this, I would watch these if it was just setting up a tripod and shooting them yourself.

Aside from that, can you tell us how much vinegar to add to the horseradish? Do you add some to both the prepared and the creamy horseradish?

Regardless of who shoots the videos, keep them coming! They are invaluable to people like me. Thanks man!

Nick I agree whole heartedly with both David and Todd. I liked the production of the other videos much much better but would watch you teach cooking if it was just you and a camera. I will say the first set of videos were better at capturing your obvious passion for cooking plus your passion for crossfit and that is probably why they were so well received, this one still highlighted your obvious knowledge and skill in the kitchen but it seemed more technical and lacked that sense of sharing something you were passionate about.

All that said, I still enjoy the series and you have definitely helped improve my cooking and my food choices. I will be trying this one out after Thanksgiving since I already bought my turkey. Oh and my kid says thanks too, he definitely appreciates what I have learned from watching you.

Nick,
I agree with the others that you did not appear comfortable and to be honest, you were pretty passionate and entertaining in past episodes. We all enjoy being entertained as well as informed, ala Kelly Starrett..

How about adding a group of your friends on the set, have them seated at the counter, this perhaps will create some comfort, some good questions and insight.
Banter is always entertaining.

Lastly, a tighter shot of the prepared horseradish and creamy would have been appreciated. I couldn't sense the consistency of either.

I didn't watch any of the old videos and don't really care if they were funny or not, I can watch comedy central if I want to laugh. I found this video very helpful , clear and to the point. keep up the good work and you will get better in front of the camera the more you do it.

Todd,
Thank you for your comments. I do not want the videos to have the "guy who makes cooking videos" feel. It may be best to throw a big party and cook for it and then send in a camera crew to capture the process and ask questions about what is going on. That was a bit of the feel of the meatza video and it turned out great.
There is a saying in cooking, "When you try to feed everyone, you end up feeding no one." This means that, although we are called to be all things to all people, there are certain situations where that does not work. Just like with CrossFit, there is no magic potion, pill, or program, it works because of variety. Different people are going to benefit from different formats and we'll keep mixing it up to ensure that this happens.
As far as the vinegar goes, I ended up adding 1/2 cup to the horseradish I had pureed. You add the vinegar to all of the horseradish, then season it with salt. This gives you the prepared horseradish, which is the base for the creamy horseradish. There is a downloadable recipe above which you can use as a guide, the key is to make it taste the way that you like it. The prepared stuff in the stores is stored in vinegar, so it would be pretty tough to overdo it. You just want to be sure to stop the heat production process and find the balance of the three flavors, heat, sour and salt.
Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Nick

Josiah,
The Thanksgiving turkey can be a challenge. Back in the day, you learned to prepare it how your parents prepared it, which they learned from their grandparents before them. Now, with the advent of the internet, there are millions of suggestions for making the "perfect turkey". You can roast it, fry it, cook it at high heat, low heat, you can inject it, brine it, cook it breast up, breast down, you can make it look pretty, you can stuff it, there's the tur-duc-hen, the beer can turkey, I've even heard of cooking the turkey in the dishwasher!
I think the common end goal for the turkey preparation, regardless of how you go about it, is that it tastes good and is moist. But, you also have to make sure that it is done, no?
So, my recommendation is to do them all. Except maybe the one in the dishwasher. Start simple. If it is not too late to heed my advice and you've got a turkey ready to go, this is what I would recommend:
Dry the turkey well with paper towels, inside and out.
Rub the turkey with olive oil and then add salt and pepper, inside and out.
Don't stuff the turkey this time, it can be dangerous and you shouldn't be eating bread anyways...
Elevate the turkey, just like we did with the prime rib, but I want you to start cooking it breast down. Also, add one 1/2 inch of water to the bottom of the pan, this will prevent the drippings from burning and provide moisture, just be sure that there is at least 1.5 inches between the water and the turkey.
For a 20 pound turkey it will take approximately 3.5 hours. Scale up or down from there according to how much your turkey weighs.
We'll make it simple and keep the temperature constant at 350 degrees.
After 2 hours, take the turkey out of the oven and turn it over. Finish by cooking breast side up.
Remove from the oven when an instant read thermometer reaches 160 degrees when inserted into the thickest part of the breast. Carry over cooking will get you to 165 degrees, which is the minimum acceptable temperature for poultry.
Cover with foil and allow to rest for 20-30 minutes.
Slice it and dice it however you want, use the pan juices as gravy and enjoy!
A side note: when it is done, I want you to be able to grab the turkey leg and pull it from the rest of the turkey with ease. This will indicate that the joints have broken down. If you want to know what this should feel like, buy a rotisserie chicken from Sam's Club or Costco and pull the leg from the body.
I hope you follow and I hope this helps!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Nick

You should come out with a book of recipes for the Crossfit world. I am trying to piece together full meals with each recipe video you put out (i.e meat, side, etc.). Thanks for all your hard work, it is definately a joy to watch the videos and learn new cooking techniques!

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